Data Recovery and File Recovery

Almost everyone who works with computers on a consistent basis has had a hard drive crash and lost valuable data that they took for granted would always be there. The warning that you should always back up your data is something that everyone has heard but not many people actually do. There are also other types of media that the data recovery companies can recover data or files from. It is not limited to hard drives. They can also recover data from any type of media.

Why should I try data recovery? I know my hard drive is ruined, there's no data to recover. - A Data Recovery Service can be a miracle worker. This is called physical hard drive recovery. Just because i seems that you have lost the data, doesn't mean that it really is gone. Often what you as a user are experiencing is merely a mechanical malfunction stopping you from accessing the data on your hard drive. The data is still intact on the drive but you can't get to it because the mechanical parts of the drive won't let you.

Can't I just take apart my hard drive and recover data myself? - The internal working disks of a drive are very sensitive and without the proper equipment and experience, it's unlikely that you would be able to recover the data yourself. Many data recovery services , (most reputable data recovery service) actually use a "clean room" to operate on your drive (in some cases I would guess that's it's actually more controlled than the operating room at your local hospital).

These data recovery companies can't help me. I accidentally deleted my files. - Once again, a data recovery service can be a miracle worker. This is called logical data recovery. Just because your operating system doesn't see the files you deleted does not mean that the data is really gone. Your drive doesn't actually remove the files until it is overwritten. This is why many people dealing with illegal activities have been nailed by the forensic data recovery people who actually restore the files that the criminal deleted and thought that was safely removed.

Isn't there data recovery software that I can use myself? - There is always a software that claims to do anything and everything. There probably is some good file recovery software that may allow you to do some types of file recovery. I want to repeat "some types of file recovery". Again, it is a science that people study and practice for years and in my personal opinion, if the file is that important that I need it back, I would spare no expense in it's recovery. I also would not risk the chance that if I make a mistake, I might might it impossible for even the professionals to recover the file. However, if it's just a deleted file that I would like to get back, but it's not a matter of life and death, I might give the file recovery software a try. But remember that if it's a hardware failure that caused the data to be lost, the only way to recover the lost information would be to use a data recovery specialists. There is no software that going to be worth anything, if your computer can't talk to the drive.

Data recovery costs a lot of money. Are these forensic and data recovery specialists ripping me off? - As I explained earlier, the true forensic data recovery people and other data recovery companies are not just a guy tearing apart hard drives in his garage. Recovering data from a malfunctioning drive is an exact science that takes years of study and experience, as well as the climate controlled operation area that is also necessary. The last fact about the cost of restoring your data is asking these 3 questions: "How much money, time and manpower went into creating the data that needs to be recovered? How much time money and manpower would go into replacing it? and last but not least...  Is the data replaceable?"